profoundly than did Coote at that
moment. But alas! Rip had the longer nap of the two.

An unceremonious application of the leader's toe, and a threat to go on
alone, brought the "Firm" to their feet in double-quick time, and
started them up the steep side of the Beacon Hill.

Demoralised by their halt, they fared badly up the slope, and had it not
been for Dick's almost vicious resolution, which kept him going and
overcame his own frequent inclination to yield to the lazier motions of
his companions, they might never have done it. Dick saw that the effort
was critical, and he was inexorable. Even Georgie thought him unkind,
and Coote positively hated him up that slope.

Oh, those never-ending ridges, one above the other, each seeming to be
the top, but each discovering another beyond more odious than itself!

More than once they felt they had just enough left in them to make the
peak that faced them; and then, when it was reached, their endurance had
to stretch and stretch until it seemed that the point of breaking must
come at each step.

If nothing else they had ever done deserved the reward of the virtuous,
that honest pull up the side of the Welkin Beacon did; and Freckleton,
had he seen them making the last scramble, would have put their names
down on his list without further probation.

The cairn stood before them at last, and as they rushed to it, and
planted themselves on the topmost point, where still a few scraps of the
scent lingered, all the fatigue and labour were forgotten in an
exhilarating sense of triumph and achievement.

"Rather a breather, that," said Dick, his honest face beaming all over;
"you chaps took a lot of driving."

"I feel quite fresh after it," said Coote, beaming too.

"You didn't feel fresh ten minutes ago, under the last shoulder but one,
my boy. If you feel so fresh, suppose you trot down and up again while
Georgie and I sit here and look at the view."

Coote declined, and after a short rest they dropped down the long slope,
with the scent in full view, on to Lowhouse, where the Gurgle, slipping
clear and deep between its banks, seemed to them one of the loveliest
pictures Nature ever drew.

The scent lay right along the bank, sometimes down on the stones,
sometimes on the high paths above the tree tops, until suddenly it
stopped.

"By Jove, we shall have to swim for it, you fellows," cried Dick,
delighted. "Chuck your shoes and things across, and tumble in."